TAG: XL recordings

Aug30

URB’s Top Picks for Electric Zoo 2011



Made Event’s monster festival on roids, Electric Zoo is back with an extra day and a massive lineup. While last year’s event was fantastic, this year’s lineup looks to overtake the previous incarnation by pouring out a ton of proper acts; sure there will be “stars” like Tiësto, David Guetta and Armin van Buuren, but there will also be our favorites on other, smaller stages. No, they’re not on the Billboard charts or playing stadium tours, but we love them and think they’re DAMN GOOD. With that said, here’s our recommendations on who to check out at the festival.

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Jul21

Damon Albarn Takes Dan the Automator, Richard Russell, Actress To The Congo For Album

When you have a catalog a large as Damon Albarn’s, a few gems are bound to be missed. Such is usually that case with his 2002 Mali Music, in which Albarn visited the African country to record with local musicians. The album represents one of the most seemless integrations of African and European music we’ve ever heard, and still sits near the top of our list of hidden gems.

A decade later and it appears that Albarn is trying to recapture some of that magic, in a more high-profile way, taking along Western musicians such as Dan the Automator, (XL Recordings head) Richard Russell, Actress and, as we learned at MELT! festival this weekend, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. The project, entitled DRC Music, will be a benefit album for Oxfam to be released on Warp Records.

The …

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May16

Some Further Thoughts on Goblin

Tyler the Creator, frontman of L.A. hip-hop convoy OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), won’t admit to it but I’m sure he understands his audience to be predominantly white, suburban, indie-teens-in-training. Let’s try to keep that in mind here, now that there seems to be a somewhat recognizable consensus on Tyler the Creator’s second full-length album and first major label release, Goblin on XL Records. From where I’m standing it seems like folks are a bit dissatisfied. Granted there hasn’t been too many local hip-hop acts with this kind of trajectory since the astronomical rise of Lupe Fiasco, the quizzical introduction of Wiz Khalifa and others, this record leaves a lot to be desired. The album is choppy, draining, and quite lengthy. Some of the standout tracks (“Yonkers” and “Sandwitches”) on the record feel somewhat superfluous since they’ve …

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May10

Tyler the Creator Arrested in Los Angeles (Video & MP3)

In case today wasn’t a big enough deal for Tyler the Creator, the highly vocal figurehead of OFWGKTA who dropped his album his new album, Goblin, on XL Recordings and announced a secret show that should be starting any minute, now we’re hearing that the young rapper was briefly handcuffed by police outside of Westchester High School. Apparently it had something to do with skateboarding.

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May10

Tyler the Creator :: Goblin (Review)

Tyler the Creator

Goblin

Released by XL Recordings


For somebody who appears to give as little a fuck as he does, Odd Future head-honcho Tyler the Creator sure gets his Santorum-stained panties in a twist at the mention of "horrorcore." At the end of the Hodgy Beats-assisted "Sandwitches," the 20-year-old Los Angeles emcee and producer makes sure to drop the beat out before telling his critics that Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All doesn't "fucking make horrorcore, you fucking idiots/Listen deeper than the music before you put it in a box." It's a funny thing to get mad at, if only because no one makes horrorcore at all and certainly no one with 8 million YouTube views for a debut single. The hip-hop subgenre was made up by The RZA and Prince Paul when they collaborated as Tha Gravediggaz, and that album's biggest hit "Diary of a Madman" has 1/10th the views that Tyler's "Yonkers" flick does. Horrorcore didn't matter until Tyler got all pissed about it.

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